Westfalia Herne

The club was founded in 1904, and has generally been a fixture amoung
clubs from Westphalia. In the 1930s, they were competitive in the Gauliga
Westfalen, always in the upper half of the table, but htings really didn;t
start to pick up until after WW-II.

The "golden" years

The late 1950s- early 1960s and were good, as Westfalia finished the
decade with a bang: they
won the strong Oberliga West in 1959 easily, ahead of such teams as 1.FC
Köln, Borussia Dortmund, VfL Bochum, Rot-Weiß Essen and
defending champ Schalke. During a German international against Turkey,
3 Westfalia players were on the pitch: Hans Tilkowski, Helmut Benthaus
and Alfred Pyka. The next season Westfalia was runner up, and they
remained a contender. Unfortunately disaster struck in 1963, as Westfalia
were sensationally relegated. This was doubly disatrous, as by getting
relegated, Westfalia automatically missed out on qualification for the new
Bundesliga (to which they would have qualified based on their previous
finishes). The Regionalliga proved to be tough, and the team did not do
particularily well.

The "goldin" years

Since 1973, the darkest year with relgation into the Amateurliga, Erhard Goldbach, the
president of Goldin Imperium, had become a major sponsor. The money from
the petrol station concern helped revive the club, and they were soon
back into the 2.Liga-Nord.
In 1977, the club named itself officially SC Westfalia Goldin Herne
as Goldin became the sole sponsor.
Westfalia continued in the 2.Liga-Nord, and the future ooked rosy, with a
5th place finsh in 78/79. However,
the sole sponsorship backfired: in late 1979, Goldbach's company
went
bankrupt with some 175 million DM in unpaid taxes. The club
followed into the poor house. Westfalia had already
played one game in the 2.Bundesliga-Nord (a win), but withdrew immediately
from competition. The club continued on in the amateur Oberliga the same
season, and managed to stay up, despite having to call several players
from the Landesliga squad.

Westfalia established itself at the top levels of the regional amateur
league, but into the new milenium, things started downhill once again.
However, expect to see them back up in the Oberliga soon.